Message amid the squabbling

Women's sports suffering from expectations gap

March 24, 2002|BY MELISSA ISAACSON.

MILWAUKEE — The issue won't go away, but maybe it's a good thing it doesn't. Aside from the pure entertainment value of it all, there may be actual lessons to be gleaned from the incessant sparring between male and female coaches in women's college basketball.

After 17 years at Connecticut, Geno Auriemma still is answering the questions, still defending himself, still lashing out in a way only he can at the inequities, perceived inequities and petty annoyances of being white, middle-aged, male and a minority.

And so it was again Friday at the U.S. Cellular Arena in Milwaukee, the day before Connecticut beat Penn State 82-64 in the Mideast Regional semifinal, that the coach of very possibly the greatest women's team ever assembled and his counterpart Rene Portland, were at it again.

Hey, it was more interesting than the scintillating theme of this year's men's tourney: "Midmajors--Friend or Foe?"

At women's tournament time in recent years, the hot topic has been the suspicion of several male coaches that an all-female NCAA selection committee had stacked certain brackets with predominantly male-coached teams to guarantee the men would not dominate the national stage of the Final Four.

The backlash occurred while dismissing such claims, when female coaches such as Portland, whose team was beaten by Auriemma's on Saturday, criticized their male colleagues for implying a gender bias. And while we're on the topic of sex bias, so the back-biting continued, why are men taking up high-profile jobs coaching women's teams when women have zero chance of getting a job coaching a men's team?

That's where things picked up in Milwaukee as Portland was asked if all else were equal between a male and female job applicant, should a woman be hired to coach a women's team?

"If the [men's coaching] position at Penn State opened right now," said Portland, "could I, should I, would I be considered is the answer to your question."

And the answer would be . . .

"No, I would not be considered for the position," she said.

At last count, men have only about 20 percent of the Division I women's head-coaching jobs. That many of them are successful, including Auriemma, who took a program that had one winning season in its 11-year history before his arrival, is the sticking point.

"Maybe guys are right when they say they're asked to get a program to a certain point, then are cast aside like used garbage bags," DePaul women's coach Doug Bruno said.

It's an issue that clearly rankles the national coach of the year, whose team won NCAA titles in 1995 and 2000 and is in line, at 36-0, for its third.

"I don't remember the last guy who got a really big-time job in women's basketball, so I don't know what they're talking about," Auriemma said of the female coaches. "The only jobs the men get are places where it's hard to win.

"How many women even apply for coaching jobs on the men's side? So how are you going to get the job if you don't apply?"

Auriemma did not address the problem of how women are going to apply without qualifications that they have no chance of earning. But that was OK. It was much more fun hearing him say not to take Portland seriously--"She's always just trying to stir things up."

For Auriemma, who began his career coaching a freshman high school girls team, coaching women was a conscious decision and he says he never has thought of using the job to get a men's position, a common misconception regarding male coaches.

To deny women his thoughts on life and basketball, not necessarily in that order, would be a big mistake.

"Anybody who has sons and daughters at home, and I do, it's a natural tendency to do that. You go out with your son in the back yard, smack him around a little bit, tackle him, push his face in the dirt, say, `Suck it up; be a man.' You go out with your daughter, a ground ball hits her in the chin, you take her to Friendly's, give her some ice cream, patch her up, kiss her, buy her a present and hope her mother won't get mad at you. The more we get away from that, the better."

He's right, of course. While few kids benefit emotionally from the Bob Knight School of coaching, girls long have suffered from lower expectations.